The Cancer Chronicles (39 page)

35.
as much of 25 percent of cancer:
Graham A. Colditz, Kathleen Y. Wolin, and Sarah Gehlert, “Applying What We Know to Accelerate Cancer Prevention,”
Science Translational Medicine
4, no. 127 (March 28, 2012): 127rv4. [
http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/4/127/127rv4.abstract?sid=55e7c705-12c3-4aa9-bffb-c7fa7756a739
]

36.
The reasons are complex:
Other important components include the hormone leptin, which is involved in regulating appetite, sex hormone–binding globulins, aromatase (also known as estrogen synthase), and PI3 kinase. See
Sandra Braun, Keren Bitton-Worms, and Derek LeRoith, “The Link Between the Metabolic Syndrome and Cancer,”
International Journal of Biological Sciences
(2011): 1003–15; [
http://www.biolsci.org/v07p1003.htm
] and Stephanie Cowey and Robert W. Hardy, “The Metabolic Syndrome,”
American Journal of Pathology
169, no. 5 (November 2006): 1505–22. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1780220
] Also involved is the Warburg effect, in which cancer cells shift to an essentially anaerobic metabolism. For an overview see Gary Taubes, “Unraveling the Obesity-Cancer Connection,”
Science
335, no. 6064 (January 6, 2012): 28–32. [
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/335/6064/28
]

37.
age of menarche decreases:
See Sandra Steingraber, “The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls,” August 2007, Breast Cancer Fund website [
http://www.breastcancerfund.org/media/publications/falling-age-of-puberty
], which includes citations to the research, and Sarah E. Anderson, Gerard E. Dallal, and Aviva Must, “Relative Weight and Race Influence Average Age at Menarche,” part 1,
Pediatrics
111, no. 4 (April 2003): 844–50. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12671122
]

38.
greater body height:
See, for example, Jane Green et al., “Height and Cancer Incidence in the Million Women Study,”
Lancet Oncology
12, no. 8 (August 2011): 785–94. [
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(11)70154-1/abstract
]

39.
also affects the immune system:
For a review, see Lisa M. Coussens and Zena Werb, “Inflammation and Cancer,”
Nature
420, no. 6917 (December 19, 2002): 860–67; [
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature01322
] and Gary Stix, “Is Chronic Inflammation the Key to Unlocking the Mysteries of Cancer?”
Scientific American,
July 2007, updated online November 9, 2008. [
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=chronic-inflammation-cancer
]

40.
Rudolf Virchow suggested:
Coussens and Werb, “Inflammation and Cancer.”

41.
aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs:
See, for example, Peter M. Rothwell et al., “Effect of Daily Aspirin on Risk of Cancer Metastasis: A Study of Incident Cancers During Randomised Controlled Trials,”
The Lancet
379, no. 9826 (April 2012): 1591–1601; and Peter M. Rothwell et al., “Short-term Effects of Daily Aspirin on Cancer Incidence, Mortality, and Non-vascular Death: Analysis of the Time Course of Risks and Benefits in 51 Randomised Controlled Trials,”
The Lancet
379, no. 9826 (April 2012): 1602–12.

42.
“low grade chronic inflammatory state”:
See, for example, World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research,
Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity,
39, box 2.4.

43.
“wounds that do not heal”:
H. F. Dvorak, “Tumors: Wounds That Do Not Heal; Similarities Between Tumor Stroma Generation and Wound Healing,”
New England Journal of Medicine
315, no. 26 (December 25, 1986): 1650–59. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3537791
] A few researchers have been exploring the possibility that red meat might encourage colon cancer because it contains, among other carcinogens, a molecule that elicits an inflammatory immune response. See Maria Hedlund et al., “Evidence for a Human-specific Mechanism for Diet and Antibody-mediated Inflammation in Carcinoma Progression,”
Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences
105, no. 48 (December 2, 2008): 18936–41; [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2596253
] and Pam Tangvoranuntakul et al., “Human Uptake and Incorporation of an Immunogenic Nonhuman Dietary Sialic Acid,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
100, no. 21 (October 14, 2003): 12045–50. [
http://www.pnas.org/content/100/21/12045.abstract
]

44.
also been tied to metabolic syndrome and diabetes:
Kathryn E. Wellen and Gökhan S. Hotamisligil, “Inflammation, Stress, and Diabetes,”
Journal of Clinical Investigation
115, no. 5 (May 2, 2005): 1111–19. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15864338
]

45.
diabetes recedes:
See, for example, Hutan Ashrafian et al., “Metabolic Surgery and Cancer: Protective Effects of Bariatric Procedures,”
Cancer
117, no. 9 (May 1, 2011): 1788–99. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21509756
]

46.
“shiftwork that involves circadian disruption”:
Kurt Straif et al., “Carcinogenicity of Shift-work, Painting, and Fire-fighting,”
Lancet Oncology
8, no. 12 (December 2007): 1065–66. [
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(07)70373-X/fulltext
] The article provides pointers to the epidemiological and laboratory studies considered by WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.

47.
“Now it is between fifty and sixty kilograms”:
The United States Department of Agriculture has estimated that Americans consume 150 pounds a year of various sugars, including high fructose corn syrup. See
Agriculture Factbook 2001–2002
(Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, March 2003), 20. [
http://www.usda.gov/factbook
]

48.
who argues that carbs and sugar:
See Taubes’s books
Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health
(New York: Vintage, 2008) and
Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It
(New York: Knopf, 2010).

49.
reducing your energy intake and therefore your insulin load:
For the effect of fiber on insulin secretion see, for example, J. G. Potter et al., “Effect of Test Meals of Varying Dietary Fiber Content on Plasma Insulin and Glucose Response,”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
34, no. 3 (March 1, 1981): 328–34. [
http://www.ajcn.org/content/34/3/328.short
]

50.
people are able to lead more sedentary lives:
Even that, however, is controversial. See Herman Pontzer et al., “Hunter-Gatherer Energetics and Human Obesity,”
PLOS ONE
7, no. 7 (July 25, 2012): e40503. [
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0040503#abstract0
]

51.
An official statement from EPIC:
“Key Findings,” EPIC Project website. [
http://epic.iarc.fr/keyfindings.php
]

1.
a wake of corrosive free radicals:
Hongning Zhou et al., “Consequences of Cytoplasmic Irradiation: Studies from Microbeam,”
Journal of Radiation Research
50, suppl. A (2009): A59–A65. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19346686
]

2.
send signals to neighboring cells:
Hongning Zhou et al., “Induction of a
Bystander Mutagenic Effect of Alpha Particles in Mammalian Cells,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
97, no. 5 (February 29, 2000): 2099–104. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15760
]

3.
13.4 percent, may be radon related:
Office of Radiation and Indoor Air,
EPA Assessment of Risks from Radon in Homes
(Washington, DC: United States Environmental Protection Agency, June 2003), iv, available on the EPA website. [
http://www.epa.gov/radon/risk_assessment.html
]

4.
smoking is also a factor:
“Radon and Cancer,” National Cancer Institute website. [
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/radon
]

5.
The EPA’s scale:
“Health Risks,” EPA website, last updated June 26, 2012. [
http://www.epa.gov/radon/healthrisks.html
]

6.
clusters of two neutrons and two protons:
These are, in fact, helium nuclei. Early on it was noticed that radium emits helium as it decays. See William Ramsay and Frederick Soddy, “Experiments in Radioactivity, and the Production of Helium from Radium,”
Proceedings of the Royal Society
72 (1903): 204–7. [
http://rspl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/72/477-486/204.full.pdf
]

7.
70 percent of their time at home:
EPA Assessment of Risks,
7, 44.

8.
The chance of a nonsmoker getting lung cancer:
Rebecca Goldin, “Lung Cancer Rates: What’s Your Risk?” March 08, 2006, Research at Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) website, George Mason University. [
http://stats.org/stories/2006/lung_cancer_rates_mar08_06.htm
]

9.
a laboratory analysis of my eyeglasses:
R. L. Fleischer et al., “Personal Radon Dosimetry from Eyeglass Lenses,”
Radiation Protection Dosimetry
97, no. 3 (November 1, 2001): 251–58. [
http://rpd.oxfordjournals.org/content/97/3/251.abstract
]

10.
a method using ordinary household glass:
R. W. Field et al., “Intercomparison of Retrospective Radon Detectors,”
Environmental Health Perspectives
107, no. 11 (November 1999): 905–10 [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10545336
]; D. J. Steck, R. W. Field, et al., “210Po Implanted in Glass Surfaces by Long Term Exposure to Indoor Radon,”
Health Physics
83, no. 2 (August 2002): 261–71 [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12132714
]; and Kainan Sun, Daniel J. Steck, and R. William Field, “Field Investigation of the Surface-deposited Radon Progeny as a Possible Predictor of the Airborne Radon Progeny Dose Rate,”
Health Physics
97, no. 2 (August 2009): 132–44. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2836385
]

11.
as long as they have owned the objects:
For a few decades, anyway. The half-life of 210Po, one of the radon products that is measured, is twenty-two years.

12.
houses in Grand Junction:
Leonard A. Cole,
Element of Risk: The Politics of Radon
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), 10–12.

13.
a construction engineer named Stanley Watras:
Cole,
Element of Risk,
12.

14.
A study in Winnipeg:
E. G. Létourneau et al., “Case-Control Study of Residential Radon and Lung Cancer,”
American Journal of Epidemiology
140, no. 4 (1994): 310–22. [
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/140/4/310.abstract
]

15.
compared the average radon levels:
These and other studies are summarized in the Winnipeg paper.

16.
a negative correlation:
B. L. Cohen, “Test of the Linear-No Threshold Theory of Radiation Carcinogenesis for Inhaled Radon Decay Products,”
Health Physics
68, no. 2 (February 1995): 157–74. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7814250
]

17.
the study was flawed:
J. H. Lubin, “On the Discrepancy Between Epidemiologic Studies in Individuals of Lung Cancer and Residential Radon and Cohen’s Ecologic Regression,”
Health Physics
75, no. 1 (July 1998): 4–10. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9645660
]

18.
skewed by an inverse connection:
J. S. Puskin, “Smoking as a Confounder in Ecologic Correlations of Cancer Mortality Rates with Average County Radon Levels,”
Health Physics
84, no. 4 (April 2003): 526–32. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12705451
] For a sampling of the debate that erupted see B. J. Smith, R. W. Field, and C. F. Lynch, “Residential 222Rn Exposure and Lung Cancer: Testing the Linear No-threshold Theory with Ecologic Data,”
Health Physics
75, no. 1 (July 1998): 11–17; [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9645661
] and B. J. Cohen, “Response to Criticisms of Smith et al.,”
Health Physics
75, no. 1 (July 1998): 23–28, 31–33. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9645663
] Rejoinders and rejoinders to the rejoinders followed.

19.
Perhaps cigarette smoke interfered with the radon monitors:
R. W. Field, e-mail to author, June 7, 2012.

20.
hundreds to thousands of picocuries per liter:
Cole,
Element of Risk,
28.

21.
lung cancer rates among uranium miners:
The studies are summarized in “EPA’s Assessment of Risks from Radon,” 8, 11, and in Committee on Health Risks of Exposure to Radon (BEIR VI), National Research Council,
Health Effects of Exposure to Radon: BEIR VI
(Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1999), 76–78. [
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=5499
]

22.
how long or how often they had smoked:
BEIR VI,
77, table 3-2.

23.
a committee of the National Research Council:
BEIR VI,
18.

24.
The most ambitious study:
R. W. Field et al., “Residential Radon Gas Exposure and Lung Cancer: The Iowa Radon Lung Cancer Study,”
American Journal of Epidemiology
151, no. 11 (June 1, 2000): 1091–102. [
http://www.cheec.uiowa.edu/misc/radon.html
]

25.
about 62 cases per 100,000 men and women:
“SEER Stat Fact Sheets: Lung and Bronchus,” Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program website. [
http://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html
]

26.
Three of the analyses:
S. Darby et al., “Radon in Homes and Risk of Lung Cancer: Collaborative Analysis of Individual Data from 13 European Case-control Studies,”
BMJ: British Medical Journal
330, no. 7485 (January 29, 2005): 223. [
http://www.bmj.com/content/330/7485/223
] The results are described in Hajo Zeeb and Ferid Shannoun, eds.,
WHO Handbook on Indoor Radon: A Public Health Perspective
(Geneva: World Health Organization, 2009), 12. [
http://www.who.int/ionizing_radiation/env/radon/en/index1.html
]

27.
consider the matter clinched:
For an overview, see Jonathan M. Samet, “Radiation and Cancer Risk: A Continuing Challenge for Epidemiologists,”
Environmental Health
10, suppl. 1 (April 5, 2011): S4. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3073196
]

28.
small doses of radiation are … beneficial:
Alexander M. Vaiserman,
“Radiation Hormesis: Historical Perspective and Implications for Low-Dose Cancer Risk Assessment,”
Dose-Response
8, no. 2 (January 18, 2010): 172–91. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2889502
] Also see Edward J. Calabrese and Linda A. Baldwin, “Toxicology Rethinks Its Central Belief,”
Nature
421, no. 6924 (February 13, 2003): 691–92 [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12610596
]; L. E. Feinendegen, “Evidence for Beneficial Low Level Radiation Effects and Radiation Hormesis,”
British Journal of Radiology
78, no. 925 (January 1, 2005): 3–7 [
http://bjr.birjournals.org/content/78/925/3.abstract
]; and Jocelyn Kaiser, “Sipping from a Poisoned Chalice,”
Science
302, no. 5644 (October 17, 2003): 376–79. [
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/302/5644/376.short
]

29.
A Johns Hopkins researcher recently concluded:
Richard E. Thompson, “Epidemiological Evidence for Possible Radiation Hormesis from Radon Exposure,”
Dose-Response
9, no. 1 (December 14, 2010): 59–75. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3057636
]

30.
low-level x-ray, gamma, and beta radiation:
Bobby R. Scott et al., “Radiation-stimulated Epigenetic Reprogramming of Adaptive-response Genes in the Lung: An Evolutionary Gift for Mounting Adaptive Protection Against Lung Cancer,”
Dose-Response
7, no. 2 (2009): 104–31. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19543479
]

31.
the Chernobyl nuclear power plant:
“Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-economic Impacts,” The Chernobyl Forum: 2003–2005, 2nd revised version, 2012. Available on the International Atomic Energy Agency website. [
http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Booklets/Chernobyl/chernobyl.pdf
]

32.
an increase in thyroid cancer:
For a recent follow-up see Alina V. Brenner et al., “I-131 Dose Response for Incident Thyroid Cancers in Ukraine Related to the Chernobyl Accident,”
Environmental Health Perspectives
119, no. 7 (July 2011): 933–39. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21406336
]

33.
the biggest public health problem … has been psychological:
“Chernobyl’s Legacy,” 36.

34.
“a paralyzing fatalism”:
Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Experts Find Reduced Effects of Chernobyl,”
New York Times,
September 6, 2005. [
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/international/europe/06chernobyl.html
]

35.
recently opened the Chernobyl site to tourism:
Peter Walker, “Chernobyl: Now Open to Tourists,”
The Guardian,
December 13, 2010. [
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/13/chernobyl-now-open-to-tourists
]

36.
a mecca for wildlife:
Robert J. Baker and Ronald K. Chesser, “The Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster and Subsequent Creation of a Wildlife Preserve,”
Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
19, no. 5 (May 1, 2000): 1231–32. [
http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/chornobyl/wildlifepreserve.htm
]

37.
killed at least 150,000 people:
“How Many People Died as a Result of the Atomic Bombings?” Radiation Effects Research Foundation website. [
http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa1.html
]

38.
527 excess deaths from solid cancers:
Kotaro Ozasa et al., “Studies of the Mortality of Atomic Bomb Survivors, Report 14, 1950–2003: An Overview of Cancer and Noncancer Diseases,”
Radiation Research
177, no. 3 (March 2012): 229–43. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22171960
]

39.
and 103 from leukemias:
David Richardson et al., “Ionizing Radiation and Leukemia Mortality Among Japanese Atomic Bomb Survivors, 1950–2000,”
Radiation Research
172, no. 3 (September 2009): 368–82. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19708786
] Using incidence instead of mortality figures, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation attributed 1,900 cases of cancer to the bombs. See “How Many Cancers in Atomic-bomb Survivors are Attributable to Radiation?” on the foundation’s website. [
http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa2.html
]

40.
Tsutomu Yamaguchi survived both blasts:
Mark McDonald, “Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Survivor of 2 Atomic Blasts, Dies at 93,”
New York Times,
January 7, 2010. [
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/world/asia/07yamaguchi.html
]

41.
“cancer in a molten, liquid form”:
Siddhartha Mukherjee,
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
(New York: Scribner, 2010), 16.

42.
reburied with Pierre in the Panthéon:
Nanny Fröman, “Marie and Pierre Curie and the Discovery of Polonium and Radium,” December 1, 1996, Nobel Prize website. [
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/curie
]

43.
worried that her body would be dangerously radioactive:
D. Butler, “X-rays, Not Radium, May Have Killed Curie,”
Nature
377, no. 6545 (September 14, 1995): 96. [
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7675094
]

44.
kept in a lead box at the Bibliothèque Nationale:
Fröman, “Marie and Pierre Curie.”

45.
too ill to travel to Stockholm:
Marie Curie,
Pierre Curie (With the Autobiographical Notes of Marie Curie),
trans. Charlotte Kellogg (New York: Macmillan Co., 1923), 125. [
http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng//files/20/46/74/f204674/public/CurPier.html
]

46.
Pierre described an experiment:
“Radioactive Substances, Especially Radium,” June 6, 1905, in
Nobel Lectures, Physics 1901–1921
(Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1967). Available on the Nobel Prize website. [
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/pierre-curie-lecture.html
]